Greeley Honors English Midterm Characters

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Jean Louise "Scout" Finch

(TKAM) The narrator and protagonist of the novel. She lives with her father, Atticus, her brother, Jem, and their black cook, Calpurnia, in Maycomb. She is intelligent and, by the standards of her time and place, a tomboy. She has a combative streak and a basic faith in the goodness of the people in her community. As the novel progresses, this faith is tested by the hatred and prejudice that emerge during Tom Robinson's trial. She eventually develops a more grown-up perspective that enables her to appreciate human goodness without ignoring human evil.

Jeremy "Jem" Finch

(TKAM) Scout's brother and constant playmate at the beginning of the novel. He is something of a typical American boy, refusing to back down from dares and fantasizing about playing football. Four years older than Scout, he gradually separates himself from her games, but he remains her close companion and protector throughout the novel. He moves into adolescence during the story, and his ideals are shaken badly by the evil and injustice that he perceives during the trial of Tom Robinson.

Atticus Finch

(TKAM) Scout and Jem's father in the novel, a lawyer in Maycomb descended from an old local family. A widower with a dry sense of humor, he has instilled in his children his strong sense of morality and justice. He is one of the few residents of Maycomb committed to racial equality. When he agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man charged with raping a white woman, he exposes himself and his family to the anger of the white community. With his strongly held convictions, wisdom, and empathy, Atticus functions as the novel's moral backbone.

Arthur "Boo" Radley

(TKAM) A recluse who never sets foot outside his house, he dominates the imaginations of Jem, Scout, and Dill. He is a powerful symbol of goodness swathed in an initial shroud of creepiness, leaving little presents for Scout and Jem and emerging at an opportune moment to save the children. An intelligent child emotionally damaged by his cruel father, he provides an example of the threat that evil poses to innocence and goodness. He is one of the novel's "mockingbirds," a good person injured by the evil of mankind.

Robert E. Lee "Bob" Ewell

(TKAM) A drunken, mostly unemployed member of Maycomb's poorest family. In his knowingly wrongful accusation that Tom Robinson raped his daughter, he represents the dark side of the South: ignorance, poverty, squalor, and hate-filled racial prejudice.

Charles Baker "Dill" Harris

(TKAM) Jem and Scout's summer neighbor and friend. He is a diminutive, confident boy with an active imagination. He becomes fascinated with Boo Radley and represents the perspective of childhood innocence throughout the novel.

Miss Maudie Atkinson

(TKAM) The Finches' neighbor, a sharp-tongued widow, and an old friend of the family. She is almost the same age as Atticus's younger brother, Jack. She shares Atticus's passion for justice and is the children's best friend among Maycomb's adults.

Calpurnia

(TKAM) The Finches' black cook. She is a stern disciplinarian and the children's bridge between the white world and her own black community.

Aunt Alexandra

(TKAM) Atticus's sister, a strong-willed woman with a fierce devotion to her family. She is the perfect Southern lady, and her commitment to propriety and tradition often leads her to clash with Scout. She becomes a round character when she finds out that Tom Robinson is dead, showing compassion not seen before that point.

Mayella Ewell

(TKAM) Bob Ewell's abused, lonely, unhappy daughter. Though one can pity her because of her overbearing father, one cannot pardon her for her shameful indictment of Tom Robinson.

Tom Robinson

(TKAM) The black field hand accused of rape. He is one of the novel's "mockingbirds," an important symbol of innocence destroyed by evil.

Link Deas

(TKAM) Tom Robinson's employer. In his willingness to look past race and praise the integrity of Tom's character, he epitomizes the opposite of prejudice.

Mrs. Dubose

(TKAM) An elderly, ill-tempered, racist woman who lives near the Finches. Although Jem believes that she is a thoroughly bad woman, Atticus admires her for the courage with which she battles her morphine addiction.

Nathan Radley

(TKAM) Boo Radley's older brother. Scout thinks that he is similar to the deceased Mr. Radley, his and Boo's father. He cruelly cuts off an important element of Boo's relationship with Jem and Scout when he plugs up the knothole in which Boo leaves presents for the children.

Heck Tate

(TKAM) The sheriff of Maycomb and a major witness at Tom Robinson's trial. He is a decent man who tries to protect the innocent from danger.

Mr. Underwood

(TKAM) News reporter and is Atticus' friend. Named Braxton Bragg, a name he tries to live down. He owns and also publishes The Maycomb Tribune. Being a racist, he disagrees with Atticus on principle but has a strong bond with him, as exemplified when he defends Atticus from the Cunningham mob by having his double barrel shotgun loaded and ready to shoot them. He also demonstrates some humanity when he publishes a scathing editorial comparing the killing of Tom Robinson (a cripple) to "the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children".

Dolphus Raymond

(TKAM) A wealthy white man who lives with his black mistress and mulatto children. He pretends to be a drunk so that the citizens of Maycomb will have an explanation for his behavior. In reality, he is simply jaded by the hypocrisy of white society and prefers living among blacks.

Mr. Walter Cunningham

(TKAM) A poor farmer and part of the mob that seeks to lynch Tom Robinson at the jail. He displays his human goodness when Scout's politeness compels him to disperse the men at the jail. He is a foil to Bob Ewell, also being poor, but never taking anything that he can't pay back.

Walter Cunningham

(TKAM) Son of Mr. Cunningham and classmate of Scout. He cannot afford lunch one day at school and accidentally gets Scout in trouble.

Cecil Jacobs

(TKAM) Scout's classmate who insults Atticus, but Scout later becomes friends with him

(TKAM) A lawyer from Abbottsville, and is the prosecuting attorney in the Tom Robinson case.He appeared to be racist in his harsh cross-examination of Tom Robinson, but it is hinted at that he was in fact going easy on Tom. Scout says "Well, today [he] seemed to me like he wasn't half trying," when talking about his cross-examination.

Dr. Reynolds

(TKAM) The Maycomb doctor. He is well known to Scout and Jem. He inspects Jem's broken arm and Scout's minor bruises after the attack from Bob under the tree.

Caroline Fisher

(TKAM) Scout's first grade teacher and is new to Maycomb, Alabama and its ways. She attempts to teach the first grade class using a new standardized system. She is upset that Scout is far more advanced in reading than the rest of her class, and believes that she is receiving lessons from her father, Atticus. In an effort to standardize the class she forbids Scout from reading. Once again Atticus asks Scout to step into Ms. Caroline's skin, but continues to allow Scout to read with him at night so long as she continues to go to school. She has good intentions, but proves quite incompetent as a teacher.

Reverend Sykes

(TKAM) The reverend for the all-black congregation, First Purchase African M.E. church, which Scout and Jem visit one day with Calpurnia. Made the congregation raise $10 for Helen Robinson when Tom was in jail.

Zeebo

(TKAM) Calpurnia's son, he is garbage collector and one of 4 people who can read at First Purchase African M.E. Church. He leads the church in the singing of hymns.

Stephanie Crawford

(TKAM) The town gossip, most of what she says is not true.

Rachel Haverford

(TKAM) She is Dill's aunt and the Finch's neighbor. She truly does love her nephew, and eventually realizes that he loved to visit her. She was also a close friend of Alexandra.

Helen Robinson

(TKAM) Tom's wife who was eventually hired by Mr. Link Deas

Jessie

(TKAM) Mrs. Dubose's maid

Burris Ewell

(TKAM) Attend's school once per year, is dirty and mean, and his family lives off the town dump

Lula

(TKAM) A foil for Calpurnia, she angrily confronts Cal for bringing Jem and Scout to First Purchase. Her anger towards them is a mirror of the racism shown by whites to blacks.

Mrs. Merriweather

(TKAM) The woman who directed the pageant in which Scout played a ham. A very devout hypocrite, who loves to gossip.

Tim Johnson

(TKAM) A dog owned by Harry Johnson, who gets rabies and is wandering down the street. Heck Tate asks Atticus to shoot the dog, which he does. The dog does two things; 1) represents Tom Robinson in a way and 2) Shows the children that there is a lot that they don't know about their father (being a dead shot)

Dr. Henry Jekyll

(DJMH) A respected doctor and friend of both Lanyon, a fellow physician, and Utterson, a lawyer. He is a seemingly prosperous man, well established in the community, and known for his decency and charitable works. Since his youth, however, he has secretly engaged in unspecified dissolute and corrupt behavior. Hel finds this dark side a burden and undertakes experiments intended to separate his good and evil selves from one another. Through these experiments, he brings Mr. Hyde into being, finding a way to transform himself in such a way that he fully becomes his darker half.

Mr. Edward Hyde

(DJMH) A strange, repugnant man who looks faintly pre-human. Hyde is violent and cruel, and everyone who sees him describes him as ugly and deformed—yet no one can say exactly why. Language itself seems to fail around him: he is not a creature who belongs to the rational world, the world of conscious articulation or logical grammar. He is Jekyll's dark side, released from the bonds of conscience and loosed into the world by a mysterious potion.

Mr. Gabriel John Utterson

(DJMH) A prominent and upstanding lawyer, well respected in the London community. He is reserved, dignified, and perhaps even lacking somewhat in imagination, but he does seem to possess a furtive curiosity about the more sordid side of life. His rationalism, however, makes him ill equipped to deal with the supernatural nature of the Jekyll-Hyde connection. While not a man of science, he resembles his friend Dr. Lanyon—and perhaps Victorian society at large—in his devotion to reasonable explanations and his denial of the supernatural.

Dr. Hastie Lanyon

(DJMH) A reputable London doctor and, along with Utterson, formerly one of Jekyll's closest friends. As an embodiment of rationalism, materialism, and skepticism, he serves a foil for Jekyll, who embraces mysticism. His death represents the more general victory of supernaturalism over materialism in the novel

Mr. Poole

(DJMH) Jekyll's butler. He is a loyal servant, having worked for the doctor for twenty years, and his concern for his master eventually drives him to seek Utterson's help when he becomes convinced that something has happened to Jekyll.

Mr. Enfield

(DJMH) A distant cousin and lifelong friend of Mr. Utterson. Like Utterson, he is reserved, formal, and scornful of gossip; indeed, the two men often walk together for long stretches without saying a word to one another.

Mr. Guest

(DJMH) Utterson's clerk and confidant. He is also an expert in handwriting. His skill proves particularly useful when Utterson wants him to examine a bit of Hyde's handwriting. He notices that Hyde's script is the same as Jekyll's, but slanted the other way.

Sir Danvers Carew

(DJMH) A well-liked old nobleman, a member of Parliament, and a client of Utterson. He is murdered by Mr. Hyde.

Oedipus

(OR) He is the king of Thebes, married to Jocasta. He is unaware, at the start of the play, that he has murdered his father and slept with his mother. His hamartia is his hubris. His story represents how the gods are infinitely more powerful than man.

Iocasta

(OR) She is the wife and mother of Oedipus and queen of Thebes. Before marrying Oedipus, she was married to Laios. She commits suicide at the end of the play, perhaps in guilt that she left Oedipus to die as a baby, thus precipitating his course towards a tragic end for their whole family.

Teirisias

(OR) He is the blind prophet, led by a small boy, who knows the truth about Oedipus's parentage. Oedipus calls on him to find Laios's killer but becomes furious when he claims that Oedipus himself is the killer.

Creon

(OR) The brother of Jocasta and uncle of Antigone who became king of Thebes after the fall of Oedipus.

Messenger from Corinth

(OR) A messenger from Corinth who gives the news that Oedipus's adopted father, King Polybus is dead and the people of Corinth want him to be king. Also reveals to Oedipus that Polybus and Merope aren't his real parents

Shepherd

(OR) Gave Oedipus to the messenger on Laios and Jocaste's orders. When he witnesses Laios's death and returns to see that Oedipus is king, he requests to become a shepherd.

Antigone

(OR) Oedipus's daughter

Miss Adela Strangeworth

(POE) The protagonist and antagonist of the short story. She lives in a small town where everybody knows everybody in her family's mansion. Her favorite thing in life are her roses. She has a dark secret, though, where she writes letters to the people of the town, warning them of the "possibility of evil".

Mr. Lewis

(POE) First name Thomas. Works at the grocery store, used to be good friends with Miss Strangeworth back in high school, but they grew apart.

Mrs. Harper

(POE) First name Martha. An older woman. She represents how the whole town is frightened by the letters

Helen Crane

(POE) Married to Don (same last name). Has a baby that she is worried about who, in Miss Strangeworth's opinion, she spoils.

Mrs. Chandler

(POE) The librarian

Linda Stewart

(POE) Going out with the Harris Boy

Harris Boy

(POE) A very nice boy who is dating Linda Stewart, whose father receives a letter from Miss Strangeworth about him, and forbids them to see each other

Lizabeth

(Marigolds) The protagonist and narrator of the story. Grew up in poverty in a poor black section of a town in Maryland during the depression. She remembers everything as sandy and rusty and dusty. She leads the attack on Miss Lottie's Marigolds, but feels terrible about herself after. She realizes that you can't be both innocent and compassionate [at this exact moment] and realizes that her childhood was then over.

Joey

(Marigolds) Lizabeth's brother.

Miss Lottie

(Marigolds) The town outcast who does nothing except maintain her beautiful flowers in a town filled with ugliness. The children like to torment her because she responds. Devastated when the children destroy her flowers.

John Burke

(Marigolds) Miss Lottie's son who is "queer headed" but completely devoted to her. When someone disturbs him, he becomes violent and lashes out.

Mr. Hibler

(Gryphon) The fourth grade teacher in Michigan who often falls ill

Miss Ferenczi

(Gryphon) The substitute teacher for Mr. Hibler. She has never been seen before in the rural community in Michigan, and this is strange to the children because there usually aren't any outsiders in the town. She has two marionette lines going from her moth to her chin, making her look like Pinocchio. She tells the fourth grade kids that she is teaching many lies and things that inspire imagination, but eventually crosses the line by telling a student, Wayne, that he was going to die soon.

Tommy

(Gryphon) The narrator and protagonist. A fourth grader in a rural community in Michigan, whose life is dull until a substitute teacher, Miss Ferenczi, comes and tells fabulous, if not true, tales of crazy things. he looks up a gryphon in the dictionary, and when he sees it, it verifies everything that Miss Ferenczi had said for him. When she tells a fellow student of his that hes going to die and he reports her, he attacks the kid for taking away his dreams.

Carl Whiteside

(Gryphon) A student that sits next to Tommy on the bus and debates the truth of Miss Ferenczi's stories with him.

Wayne

(Gryphon) Miss Ferenczi says that he's going to die, so he reports her and she is told to leave.

Kelly Munger

(Gryphon) Supporting character similar to Walter Cunningham of TKAM. Is fussing in his desk, and the teacher asks why, and someone in the class explains that that's just what he does.

The Doctor

(The Use of Force) The main character, a doctor on a visit to a poor family that were not regular patients of his. THey want him to examine their daughter, because she hadn't been talking lately, and there has been a diptheria outbreak. The doctor is creepy because he finds himself attracted to the little girl, and her refusing to open her mouth when he wants to examine her gives him kind of sick sexual pleasure. He gets more and more violent until he finally wrenches her mouth open and gets a sample, proving the girl has diptheria

Mathilda

(The Use of Force) The girl who resists the doctor's treatment, who has diptheria.

The Parents

(The Use of Force) The parents of the girl, act as one, concerned unit, but play a very minor role in the importance of the story